SSTK: Barrier holds firm in Portimao FP2

Title contender Sylvain Barrier continued to hold firm at the top of the FIM Superstock 1000 Championship Portimao timesheets, well ahead of key rival Eddi La Marra.

The Frenchman has topped all timed sessions in Portugal thus far and continued to dominate during FP2 as he out-paced nearest rival Bryan Staring by two tenths of a second with the fastest lap of the weekend thus far.

Indeed, though the gap to Staring was fairly comfortable, he was almost a full second quicker than third place man Lorenzo Savadori on the Barni Ducati.

Behind Savadori, Christoffer Bergman and Jeremy Guarnoni rounded out the top five on their respective Kawasakis, ahead of sole Honda rider Fabio Massei, Matthieu Lussiana, Ondrej Jezek and Leandro Mercado.

La Marra, who has a slender six point lead over Barrier with just two races remaining, could only manage the tenth best time, 1.6secs behind his main rival.